The richest Sire Stakes Championship series begins Saturday night as The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono will host four $350,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship for three-year-olds, and two horses with strong Canadian ties headline their respective divisions.

Each of the four divisions will also have a $60,000 Consolation race; the total program on Saturday at Pocono will distribute purses of $1,770,000.

THREE-YEAR-OLD COLT PACERS -- $350,000 Championship – race 12,
$60,000 Consolation – race 5

Championship record: 1:48.4, McWicked, 2014 (fastest Championship in PA history)
Defending champion from two-year-old year: Yankee Bounty
Leading point winner in four preliminaries: Lost For Words

Most of the attention in the 'glamour division' will be focused on Wakizashi Hanover, already a winner of over $943,000 this year, including the North America Cup Final, and regarded as second-best on the North American scene to the amazing Wiggle It Jiggleit. 'Wakizashi' has drawn post five for the Championship, and as usual trainer Joann Looney-King has tapped Tim Tetrick to drive the altered son of Dragon Again for the Tri County Stable of Nova Scotia. The sophomore has experience over the track, winning a Hempt elimination, finished fourth from a difficult draw in the Final, while following that outing up with a second to Wiggle It Jiggleit in the Battle of the Brandywine.

It’s unusual to see a defending champion and a leading prelim points winner regarded as 'outsiders' in the field, but Yankee Bounty and Lost For Words, respectively, are not only figurative outsiders, but the literal outsiders as well in the field of eight. Yankee Bounty, starting from post seven for all-time Sire Stakes driving champion Dave Palone, does come off a 1:49.3 win in a Sire Stakes prelim, while Lost For Words (post eight, David Miller) was the only three-time winner in the Sire Stakes prelims.

FILLY TROTTERS -- $350,000 Championship – race 9, $60,000 Consolation – race 14

Championship record: 1:51.3, Check Me Out, 2012 (fastest trot Champion ever)
Defending champion from two-year-old year: Wild Honey
Leading pointwinner in four preliminaries: Sarcy (not entered), Smokinmombo #2

Last year’s divisional champion Wild Honey has come back sharply in 2015, with a win in the Hambletonian Oaks Final and two Sire Stakes wins. The Cantab Hall filly is likely to be held as the horse to beat despite drawing post eight for driver Dave Palone, trainer Jimmy Takter, and the ownership combine of Takter, Fielding, Liverman, and Fielding.

Jimmy Takter is also the trainer of Sarcy, who was #1 in the prelim points, but that filly has not raced since finishing fifth in the Oaks Final on August 8 and has not won since June 25, so she is not entered in the Championship. But Wild Honey is certainly a fine 'backup plan.'

COLT TROTTERS

Championship record: 1:52.4, Father Patrick, 2014
Defending champion from two-year-old year: Billy Flynn (the only three-year-old who did not qualify for these finals)
Leading pointwinner in four preliminaries: Wicker Hanover

Wicker Hanover and Uncle Lasse were both three-time Sire Stakes prelim winners. Wicker Hanover, an Explosive Matter colt who has done well on or off the pace, will start from post six for driver Andrew McCarthy, trainer Ross Croghan, and the Christer Haggstorm Racing Stable Inc., while the Donato Hanover colt Uncle Lasse, third in both the Hambletonian Final and the Colonial, drew post two for driver David Miller, trainer Jimmy Takter, and owners Solveig’s Racing Partners and Goran Falk.

A horse conspicuous by his absence is Pinkman, #2 in the prelim point standings while achieving three victories. When he won the Hambletonian trainer Takter chose the Triple Crown road for him, and he goes Saturday night at Yonkers in the Yonkers Trot, the second Crown leg. But even with two recent losses to Crazy Wow, in the Colonial and Yonkers Trot elim, Pinkman likely would have been a big favourite here, and using the 'glass is half full' theory, the race is much more competitive this way.

FILLY PACERS -- $350,000 Championship – race 10, $60,000 Consolation – race 3

Championship record: 1:49, Economy Terror
Defending champion from two-year-old year: Southwind Roulette
Leading pointwinner in four preliminaries: Somewhere Sweet

Perhaps the best testimony to the contentiousness of this division all year, and in theory here Saturday, is the fact that prelim point leader Somewhere Sweet won only once in the prelims. But the daughter of Somebeachsomewhere, trained by Brian Brown for Miller’s Stable, has been a very consistent miss, winning half her ten seasonal starts and never finishing worse than fourth. She draws the favourable post two for driver David Miller.

There were two two-time prelim winners in this division, but for Saturday they had the misfortune of drawing the two outside spots on the gate: Serious Filly (PP7, also trained by Brown, Tim Tetrick listed) and Safe From Terror (PP8, trainer Ron Burke, also listing Tetrick on the early sheet).

FINISHING LINES – Dave Palone has 38 career wins in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championships, and the driver in second needs a telescope to see him even though winning five Championships last year –- Yannick Gingras, with a total of 12. We know Yannick will not duplicate that output in 2015, as he will be driving Pinkman at Yonkers on Saturday. Palone, however, has a call in three of the four Championships, and there are two to-be-resolved double calls in the race he currently is not listed on.

The PA Sire Stakes Championship series for two-year-olds will be held on Friday, September 11, at The Meadows, with the same $350,000/$60,000 purse structure. In between, Harrah’s Philadelphia will host the eight $40,000 Championships of the PA Stallion Series – the three-year-olds on a special card this Monday, Labour Day, and the two-year-olds the following Thursday.

(PHHA/Pocono)